World No. 1 Nelly Korda joined host Gary Williams on Monday as the first guest for Golf Channel’s new morning show, 5 Clubs. Williams, a longtime Golf Channel personality, launched 5 Clubs and its podcast in 2021. At the end of her segment, Korda jokingly told Williams that it was all downhill from here, a nod to her status in the game.
The former “Morning Drive” host interviewed Korda remotely from his studio in Charlotte, N.C., while Korda was in Bradenton, Florida, fresh off a vacation in Park City, Utah.
“When you’re going to a place where there’s a lot of snow and you’re wearing a lot of puffy jackets and a beanie, not many people recognize you,” said Korda, “so that was a perfect moment for me to recharge my batteries and do something that I normally don’t.”
During the course of the interview – in which Korda revealed that the first autograph she got as a kid was from Arnold Palmer – the LPGA star touched on the highs of her historic seven-win 2024 season as well as the lows, such as the shocking missed cuts at the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA.
“Those under pressure moments of being in contention, they take so much out of you,” said Korda, “that, you know, it’s it was really important for me to recharge, and I’m not gonna lie and say that I knew what I was doing.
“I mean, in the middle of the year where I had, let’s say, U.S. Open KPMG and just like a couple of other regular events, I was really struggling. I didn’t have much energy … my mind kind of wasn’t connecting to my body, and I think I was just kind of a little too tired and obviously kind of the negative energy and not playing great kind of wore on me a little. But that was a great learning opportunity for me and made me realize that people around me and those are the most important people and I’m so grateful and I’m so lucky for those people, and it was a great way to lean on others, too.”
